Banshee Gets A Season Three Renewal on Cinemax

Banshee, the Cinemax original series has received an order for a third season of the cable crime drama, the network announced today. The Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler-created series recently premiered its second season to increasingly good reviews and ratings, making it a no-brainer for the network that’s focusing seriously on its original programming game. The third season order — which is slated for a 2015 debut — was revealed today via press release from Kary Antholis the president of HBO Miniseries and CINEMAX Programming.

Executive produced by Alan Ball, Greg Yaitanes, Peter Macdissi, and the creators Tropper and Schickler, the action-crime series follows Lucas Hood (played by Antony Starr), an ex-con super-thief with serious feelings for his former lover Carrie Hopewell (whom he better knew as Anastasia, played by Ivana Miličević) that drive him to seek her our in Banshee, Pennsylvania. The town where she lives with her new identity and life as the mother to two kids with her prosecutor husband. The two are pitted up against Kai Procter (Ulrich Thomsen), a local crime kingpin/businessman (because really, what’s the difference these days?) and taken to task in an increasingly tricky dynamic. Procter is also a deserting member of the local Amish community — his niece Rebecca being the only connection to that world that reminds, though she’s recently made the decision to cut ties as well, given her hard-partying ways.

Banshee has been a keystone in Cinemax’s attempt to expand its original programming efforts, and the work has not gone unnoticed. The series even earned an Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects at last year’s Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Undoubtedly it doesn’t hurt that the series has Ball in its corner pocket, given his distinctively American Gothic style permeates much of the series’ visual aesthetic. Ball’s other popular series — Six Feet Under and the soon to be departed True Blood — are both couched in this stylization, much to both of their benefits. I mean, just look at the opening images for the season two teaser trailer — that tree ringing any bells for you, Six Feet Under fans?

Banshee airs Fridays at 10PM on Cinemax, and for those of you who’ve yet to get into the series, the pilot episode is available online, for free, on YouTube. Look!